ChaptersChapter 37Page 4,918

Chapter 37: East-West Gathering

1963Page 4,918 of 5,444
(3) Your third query is: That Baba should prescribe the procedure in laying the Idol; his wish as to how you should all conduct yourselves.
This very question arises from the misleading idea that you will be installing an idol of Baba! Baba says that his living Person is by itself the Real Idol of God and no other idol can replace it — it will be replaced only with his next advent after 700 years! No amount of ceremonies for pran-pratishta can ever breathe the life of Baba into an idol! The moment you think of an idol of Baba in Mehersthan, you wash away the very foundation of your own faith in Baba, your own love for Baba and your own obedience to Baba's dictates! Only those who fail to feel his presence anywhere else than in the bronze image of Baba, will find beloved Baba as a mere statue or idol in Mehersthan.
Lovers of Baba should make Mehersthan the House of True Worship by expression of their pure love for him, and they should believe that in it is housed the very presence of Beloved Avatar Meher Baba, and not his idol or statue.
The answer in a nutshell to your third query is that you should believe in the very presence of beloved Baba at Mehersthan, and drive away all thoughts of replacing Baba's presence with installation of an idol of Baba "sanctified" by Vedic rites.
The bronze statue of beloved Baba can be of help to perpetuate Baba's presence in Mehersthan for posterity.
4) Your fourth query is: That after installation, what should be the daily regular conduct of worship?
In answer to this I must say that this question will never arise if all lovers of Baba enter Mehersthan with the belief that Baba himself is in it. Your conduct should be as it is when you are in the presence of your beloved Baba at Ahmednagar or Poona.
Any lover of Baba who enters Mehersthan is in himself the pujari [priest] of Baba; every lover should have full freedom of expression of love for Baba according to the dictates of his or her heart. Anyone should have a free access to Baba in Mehersthan and be allowed full freedom of expression of love for Baba without any reservations of caste or creed or race. There can be no better form of worship in Mehersthan than repeating Baba's name and singing in his praise — and those who cannot sing can read, recall and repeat Baba's messages and discourses, can recite the Master's Prayer of Parvardigar and the Prayer of Repentance, can read aloud the messages of the Highest of the High and Meher Baba's Call, can listen to bhajans on Baba and, above all, can spend most of the time sitting quietly in Baba's presence, recalling the incidents and happenings of all the sahavas and the recent East-West Gathering.
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